»04 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



183 



nwy, notwithstanding tlie nine stocks 

 iving been reduced to eight. Une 

 ock was taken to Knlhutty and tried 

 ith the coit'ee blossom when in full 

 com there in May; but, though honey 

 IS a))undant, the heat seemed to af- 

 ct the bees. . A rack section was 

 pt on the hive and a fair quantity 



lioney was dejiosited. but the sec- 

 jns wet'e not capped. 

 Ootacaniund appears, in fact, to be 

 e best locality for bees, as there is 



all times in the year an abundance 



bee tloAvers in the gardens, and the 

 calyptus is in blossom from January 



April, which yields a very superior 

 mey. In .Tidy and August the yel- 

 v\' and black wattles blossom, and 

 so largely yield honey. September 

 d October seem to be the months 

 ien honey gets scarce. The queen 

 en, to a great extent, stops laying, 

 d stocks should lie overhauled. In 

 )veml)er drones are killed, even the 

 ubs being removed from the hives, 

 irly in the year lioney seems to come 



again; eight sections were taken, be- 

 les some well-sealed frames, for ex- 

 iction. In January and February it 



advisable to see that the hives are 

 ill covered, the nights being frosty 

 d cold. A good gunny bag thrown 

 er the hive equalizes the tempera- 

 re, keeping off the sun by day and 

 3 frost by night. 



[n March all the hives are at their 

 st, with abundance of stores and 

 ung brood. Racks of sections should 



placed on all strong stocks. Should 



' hive become crowded another inner 

 .'e may be added lieneath the orig- 

 \\ hive, which will aiford the queen 

 iple foom for laying, especially if 

 3Vided with drawn-out comb. This 

 11 tend to keep the stoclc from 



arming, an event to be expected in 



igust or September. 



from a man's yard and my attention 

 was excited from the way the bees 

 were working on the bloom. 1 set 

 tliem out on the Ixirder of my field in 

 loam soil, a mere handful of plants and 

 in two years they have fofced their 

 way under unfavorable conditions to 

 form a large lied. They grow very 

 rank and bloom profusely and so on 

 throughout the snnnner. The bees 

 crowd the bloom, early and late. I am 

 confident that an acre of this will tide 

 a large apiary ovet- our destructive 

 rainy seasons. 



No. 2 covers a field about five acres 

 in extent, a half mile away. The own- 

 er, a new-comer, calls it Japan clover. 

 He may be mistaken. Last summer 

 the field was in cow peas and beggar- 

 weed. Last winter it bore a crop of 

 oats. This summer he has stock on it. 

 It is pine land. The plant has fought 

 its way to supremacy against purs- 

 lane, maiden cane, dog fennel and 

 other thriving enemies. It is in bloom 

 now and has been for the past month, 

 while the bees are working on it 

 smartly, but nothing like they do on 

 No. 1, and only forenoons at that. 



Victoria. Fla., July 7, 1904. 



The specimens were received and 

 submitted for identification to Prof. H. 

 Harold Hume, State Horticulturist, 

 Raleigh, N. C, who was formet'ly con- 

 nected with the University of Florida 

 at Lake City. Prof. Hume writes in 

 response: No. 1 is Monarda puntata;No. 

 2. Richardia scalira. The former is 

 closely related to the catnip, while the 

 second, although frequentl.v called Jap- 

 an clover and Mexican clover, is not 

 clover at all, but belongs to the Mad- 

 der family. — Editor. 



ORANGE BLOSSOM HONEY 

 SCARCE. 



TWO FLORIDA NECTAR 

 YIELDERS. 



By. W. S. Blaisdell. 



^\ PAGE lis, June Bee-Keeper, 

 * I Mr. Harris writes of his experi- 

 ments with nectar producing 

 I nts. I offer a few lines also in evi- 



C ICC. 



^iiii-losed are two specimen plants 

 \ iili are supposed to lie, No. 1, cat- 

 I : No. 2, .Tapan clover. Whether or 

 1 t hey are so is for you to please de- 

 I mine. 



\s to No. 1, I secured a few plants 



By :M. W. Shepherd. 



BRO. ITIIiL — I have kept a few bees 

 in tlip midst of the orange groves 

 and have yet my first cell of or- 

 ange blossom honey to see in the su- 

 pers. The A. I. Root Co., quotes prices 

 on orange honey, and .vou can't call the 

 quotations "inflated." Seemingly the 

 (luality must be low judging from 

 prices quoted. If I am rightly in- 

 formed, the name "orange blossom" 

 has lieen cop.vrighted by Aldeirman and 

 Roberts, of Wewahitchka, Fla. Prior 

 to the freeze of 1895 they were the 

 largest producers of extracted honey in 



